Banoffee Pie

This recipe is memorable for two reasons:
1. It's my first time to cook milk ... in the can!
2. Jo-Lo would ask for "buttery". I kept correcting him that it's butter, until I saw the label on the butter we used for this recipe

That said, banoffee pie is yummy yet surprisingly easy to make. It actually reminds me of that mango and cream dessert with Graham crackers for the base we used to make back in the Philippines.  For this recipe I simple used a fixed quantity of each.  I only used one pack of malt cookies, for example, and 1 small bottle of cream, and 1 can of condensed milk, etc.

I recently discovered that you can actually buy caramelized milk in can, so this will save you time and energy if you buy this and therefore skip the boiled condensed milk part.

Ingredients
4 large ripe bananas, sliced
375 ml condensed milk (1 medium can)
250 g malt biscuits (I just looked for something that resembled Graham crackers)
300 ml fresh cream
100g butter, melted
1 tsp instant coffee
1 Tbsp white sugar

Procedure
Put the can of milk (unopened) in a pot and fill with enough water to submerge the can. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, then put the heat to the lowest setting to let the water simmer for 2 hours.

While the milk is simmering away, crush the crackers into crumbs, then mix in the butter. The mixture should no longer be crumbly. If it is, add some more butter. Then mould this into a baking dish (or better yet, in a cake mould or foil tray so the pie can be easily removed); this will form the base. Refrigerate to set.

The caramelized milk should be ready by now.  Carefully remove from heat and let it cool slightly before opening.  The milk will now have a brownish colour and will taste like yema.  Bring out the cookie base from the ref and spread the toffee.

In my case, however, I placed a thin layer of bananas before placing the caramel as I found the latter too sticky to spread onto the base.

Chill in the ref for about half an hour, then place the banana slices on top of the caramel.  Return to the ref to chill.

Now for the cream topping, which is to be made before half an hour before serving.  Mix in the instant coffee and sugar into the cream and whip until it forms peaks.  Then spread the cream on top of the bananas.

Continue chilling in the ref before serving.

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